Why I’m not going to try natural therapies

Well, the end of 2018 anyway. Which means it's officially summer, the season of wild weather and exhaustion-inspired illness.

Here in humble Mermaid Beach we've experienced hail, the decimation of crops (ie the husband's herb garden) and a wave of illness that's swept through the house not once but thrice.

It's suburban suffering at biblical levels and enough to make one search for salvation from the strangest sources.

Like natural therapies.

Natural therapies? Nah.

Fortunately, I know better. Call me crazy, but I like my medicines to come with a heavy dose of evidence.

I'm hardly a pill-popper, but if I am ill with more than a cold (which is rare, to be honest) I want someone with a solid degree doing the diagnosing and I want my drugs tested and approved by federal agencies. I don't care if they are composed of chemicals and synthetic drugs, if they are proven to be both safe and effective I'm happy to swallow.

I'm not opposed to natural medicines but I'm not convinced either. To me, they can be complementary, but should never be alternative. Real illness requires real treatment.

Certainly it's true that natural remedies can pack a powerful punch, but it's not always positive. In fact, the term "natural'' is not necessarily a commendation.

Paul Karason, who turned blue after taking large doses of colloidal silver

Take tobacco, for example. Sure it kills more than 5 million people a year but it's natural. As is asbestos and arsenic.

And then there's black salve and so-called Smurf water.

Black salve is an "alternative cancer treatment'' that contains zinc chloride, a toxic dehydrating agent and skin irritant, and the plant blood root.

It's banned in Australia and it's illegal to supply, sell or import. But unlike illicit drugs, it's not illegal to possess the ointment.

Google it for more than five minutes and the pictures alone are enough to convince you it's a "cure'' far worse than the disease - and just as deadly.

Then there's Smurf water, an unapproved mineral supplement that can leave those who misuse it with irreversibly blue skin.

Deputy chair Rob Molhoek. Pics Tim Marsden

It was in the news this week after natural remedies company Natural Vitality Group, which is solely directed by Southport MP Rob Molhoek, had continued to spruik its colloidal silver products, for registered practitioners to prescribe to their patients.

While the supplement is only permitted in Australia for use as a water sanitiser, the company's Prema Life websites described the substance as "super effective", adding it could "heal the body" and had potential benefits for wounds, skin conditions, ear infections, viruses, inflammation, sinusitis, colds and flu.

Given the way our family has been feeling, and given this company is directed by someone legitimate and trusted (as far as any politician can be), I can easily see that, in an alternative universe, I would have been tempted.

After all, I understand that people want to be healthy and if they're ill, they want a cure. It's part of the reason that antibiotics are so incredibly overused.

I just don't understand why people turn to these unproven products.

Actually, I do. Hope is an incredibly powerful drug. A positive mindset really does make a difference to how you feel, if not your actual T-cell count.

The placebo effect is real. If we believe something is going to work, it feels like it does - even if it doesn't.

No, what I truly don't understand is why people don't do their own research before ingesting any drug, whether prescribed from your GP or pulled from the ground.

Which is why doctors themselves are advocating for patients to arm themselves with the tools of truth.

Bond University researcher and president of the Gold Coast Skeptics Dr Paulina Stehlik suggests the following tips: add "evidence'' to your Google search; when on a website, look for who is paying for it, where the information has come from, how current it is and whether it is reviewed by experts; when visiting a health professional for a test, treatment or procedure, ask five questions: Do I really need this? What are the risks? Are there simpler, safer options? What happens if I do nothing? What are the costs?

The fact is that traditional medicine gets it wrong sometimes, too. Hello, thalidomide.

But for every misstep, there comes years of research to ensure the same mistake is not made twice.

New drugs take a long time to come to market because this system is so rigorous.

Traditional medicine may be clunky and can be slow to adapt to change, but the alternative is far more dangerous.